Idea: A shoot-off to compare photographers views of the same subject

<p>Get a few photographers together, and go photograph together from similar angles at the same time. See how much your resulting photos differ. It would be really interesting to see how the images differ from different photographers, or if they all end up similar.</p>

<p>If you require them to use the same lens and to expose in the same moment and post process with the same treatment and finally only select photographers of equal skill, vision and experience, then the photos will vary minimally. Still there may be one who stretches or ignores the rules and finds a way around it......</p>

It's not as interesting as you might think. Real differences in style don't show up unless people have the time and access

to set up the images the way they want using the tools they want. Without that, you get a bunch of photos of a subject

taken with different focal lengths an slightly different points of view, but still looking very similar.

<p>I that on a daily basis. I shoot against other shooters, I see how they cover subjects. My favorite shoots have lots of pros to shoot against. It can be a cool learning experience.</p>

<p>If you take a couple of street photographers, an architecture photographer, a macro photographer, a self portrait photographer, and one of those guys who can shoot a found potato chip bag and make it art-- bring them all to someplace like Union Station, and you would be amazed at what everyone comes home with. It's like they weren't even in the same room together. I know, because I've done just that several times.</p>

 

<p align="center"><a title="20080601-DSC_2983 by NoHoDamon, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nohodamon/2543095577/" title="20080601-DSC_2983 by NoHoDamon, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3050/2543095577_89a9ef55a3.jpg" alt="20080601-DSC_2983" width="700" height="560" /> </a></p>

<p>me too Damon and it is in fact interesting. To level the playing field I once did a shoot on a single location where everyone shot with the same disposable camera with the films developed afterwards in a lab. It's astonishing how much the results differed.</p>

<p>Various magazines have done that every few years for as long as I can remember. Pop Photo has done similar articles at least a couple of times since the 1990s. The results can sometimes be interesting.</p>

<p>Over the years I've casually compared my photos with those taken by others at the same events. Nothing competitive, just curiosity to see how others photographed the same events. In a couple of cases at family weddings, kids with P&S cameras took some snapshots that were better than my candids; more spontaneous, and their exposures were just as good. The advantages of top notch easy to use auto modes and TTL flash really cut down on the differences between our photos, leaving intangibles such as good luck and good instincts to make the shots.</p>

<p>someone made a coffee table book a few years back where they hauled a red couch around the world and took photos of it at famous places and unlikely locations. then in the movie 'amelie' the garden gnome made a transglobal trip and sent postcards and photos home. and now there is <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/littleroy/">little roy</a>, a sock puppet with a full social calendar. there's also draw/paint/sketch artists who exchange moleskine sketch books, each adding an entry or two along a theme.<br />i have a pretty hideous ceramic green hippotamus cookie jar given to me by a friend. i wonder what it might be like to mail it around to various pro and enlightened amateur photographers and see what settings they would photograph him in........</p>

<p>another episode in my life this discussion made me recall. at a summer class in modern art when i was age 8 [1968] a bunch of kids were given a movie camera and asked to film for three minutes -- one at a time, inside a blank, featureless white room. the more creative ones turned the camera on themselves. but there was a surprising amount of invention and variety, when we watched some spliced together clips at a later class.</p>

<p>I am always in favor of such a proposal, under some circumstances.

 

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You see, three of us belonging to a local photography club went to shoot <a href=" training</a>[0] of a, well, fencing club in March. I had processed my photos soon after (about two weeks) & announced that on the (photography) club mailing list. I was curious to see the photos from the other two as it was my time to shoot a high movement sport, and, really wanted to compare. Last month I asked one of the members if I could see his efforts. Reply was he had not processed them yet. (Another member is on a trip.)

 

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So if rest of the participants are not much interested in producing photographs, then the whole exercise (of comparing different perspectives) is doomed & disappointing.

 

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[0] The practice was partly staged as the area of movement was limited, and fencers mustn't mind the blinding flashes in otherwise horrible, subdued old basketball court|gym lighting to which they were accustomed.

<p>Every in-depth class I took from Monte Zucker, he would have us make photos many, many times. We would break up into pairs. Most of his classes would have 8-12 students. We really got to know each other and Monte always made sure that the atmosphere was of helping each other and not showing off. He would take our cards and project them and give an evaluation. He would always make comments that would help us do better the next time. The seminars I took from him he would start by joining us at breakfast and we would break for lunch & dinner and our final session each day would last until sunset. <br /> Real fun to be trained by a master.<br /> I hope your intentions are the same.</p>

<p>Our camera club has field trips. You would be surprised how different some photographs can be: Compositional, perspectives, exposure, color saturation/temperature, sharpness/DOF... There are some similar ones of course, but rarely so similar that one cannot tell a difference readily.</p>